Chapter 24 Imitation of teacher to revisit old case

When the birds are gone, the good bow is hidden; when the cunning rabbit dies, the lackey cooks.After the Qing government's military operation to wipe out the Nian army ended, its attitude towards Li Hongzhang was obviously indifferent.Li Hongzhang saw the court's suspicion of him, so he followed the example of his mentor Zeng Guofan and began to abolish the Huai army. In order to retain the elite of the Huai army, Li Hongzhang turned to Ma Xinyi, the newly appointed Governor of Liangjiang, for help, hoping to continue to get his support in terms of military pay.The military salaries of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army have always mainly come from the Liangjiang area.Ma Xinyi did not dare to offend Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan, and readily agreed to Li Hongzhang's request.Li Hongzhang also used Huguang's likin and 40% of the tariff as military pay, which greatly increased the military pay of the Huai army compared with before.

During Li Hongzhang's stay in Huguang, the Qing government arranged many chores for him.He was sent to Sichuan for a while, Guizhou for a while, and he was also sent to assist Zuo Zongtang to suppress the Hui uprising in Shaanxi.Li Hongzhang really didn't like Zuo Zongtang, and he was unwilling to cooperate with Zuo Zongtang again. He wrote to Zeng Guofan that working with Zuo Zongtang was like chewing wax.So Li Hongzhang found various reasons to delay the time to go to Shaanxi, and did not arrive in Xi'an until four months after receiving the order.At this time, it was July of 1870.

On June 21, 1870, the Tianjin religious incident shocked China and the world.The reason for the lesson plan is as follows: around this time, more than 30 babies in the French Catholic Infant Church died due to infectious diseases, and the common people spread rumors that people from the church hired people to use drugs to abduct the children, and then killed the children and dug them out. The heart and liver make medicine.On this day, people in Tianjin arrested a child trafficker named Wu Lanzhen.Wu Lanzhen confessed that the person who sold her the drug was a believer named Wang San.The crowd was outraged and ran to the church to ask for someone, but there was no such person as Wang San in the church.After hearing the news, Feng Daye, the French consul in Tianjin, rushed to ask Chong Hou (the then Minister of Commerce and Industry) to suppress it, but Chong Hou refused.Frustrated, Feng Daye fired two shots at Chonghou, and Chonghou dodged.Feng Daye later met Liu Jie, the magistrate of Tianjin County, who came to persuade him to make peace, and shot Liu Jie again, wounding Liu Jie's assistant.Seeing that Feng Daye was so arrogant, the crowd rushed up and killed Feng Daye and his secretary.Then, they rushed into the church, killed 20 foreigners and missionaries, and set fire to the Wanghai Tower of the French church, the Nursing Hall, the French Mercy Hall, the American Mission Hall, and the British Lecture Hall.

Afterwards, France united with the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany and other countries to protest to the Qing government, and warships from various countries gathered in Tianjin and Yantai to intimidate them with force.After the successful suppression of Nian, because of Zeng Guofan's illustrious military achievements and fear of him sitting in a big place, the Qing government directly transferred him to the central government by means of seizing military power and overtly suppressing him. Beiyang Minister.As soon as the Tianjin teaching case was released, the imperial court sent Zeng to deal with it.Zeng Guofan knew very well that this matter was related to foreigners, and the relationship was very important.Before leaving, he even wrote a suicide note for his son and bought a nanmu coffin, ready to die.Zeng Guofan committed suicide many times in his life and wrote suicide notes many times.Perhaps, this is the embodiment of the strong pessimism deep in Zeng Guofan's heart.In the process of dealing with the Tianjin religious case, under the pressure of foreigners, Zeng Guofan arrested more than 80 people, including 20 people who were sentenced to death and 25 people who were exiled.Liu Jie, the magistrate of Tianjin County, and Zhang Guangzao, the magistrate of Tianjin, were also dismissed from their posts and sent to the army.For a while, public opinion was in an uproar, accusing Zeng Guofan of betraying the country for glory and flattering foreigners.Faced with internal and external pressure, Zeng Guofan couldn't bear it, and hoped that the imperial court would invite another wise man.

In fact, Li Hongzhang was not idle during this period. He has been watching Zeng Guofan's handling of the incident since the incident in Tianjin.In fact, he was not very satisfied with Zeng Guofan's approach.At this time, Li Hongzhang suddenly received an edict, and the court asked him to lead troops to the capital area to prepare for the war, and appointed him as the governor of Zhili to replace Zeng Guofan.Li Hongzhang immediately crossed the Yellow River and reached the Zhili border, but he was in no hurry to go to Tianjin to take over immediately.He wrote to the imperial court that the Huai army could only be stationed on the border of Zhili. If it was too close to Beijing and Tianjin, it would easily arouse the suspicion of the great powers and trigger a war.

After Li Hongzhang arrived in Baoding, he wrote to Zeng Guofan that his liver disease had relapsed and he needed to recuperate for a period of time.Li Hongzhang put himself in a position where he could advance or retreat, and ignored Zeng Guofan's troubles.At this time, Li Hongzhang used methods and strategies in the officialdom far more than his teacher.This also fulfilled Zeng Guofan's evaluation of Li Hongzhang back then.Back then, Zeng Guofan once said to Li Hanzhang about his vision for the future of Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang clearly stated in the memorial: First, there is no conclusive evidence to say that churches abduct children, gouging out their hearts and eyes.

Second, Chonghou's usual behavior of flattering foreigners has long deeply aroused the dissatisfaction of the common people, so this matter is a trigger. Third, Feng Daye shot the official ordered by the court, which is also an unforgivable crime. Fourth, the masses killed only twenty foreigners. It can be seen that there are differences between China and foreign countries.Therefore, the principle of peaceful settlement should be followed when dealing with it. First, the murderer must be arrested, and second, money should be paid.However, there must be a limit to losing money, let alone cede land as a threat.Li Hongzhang also said in the memorial that if foreigners dare to make trouble for no reason after our side handles it properly under the principle that both emotion and reason are tenable, we will fight them to the death.Li Hongzhang dealt with foreigners skillfully and argued hard with reason.He negotiated to reduce the death row by four.It was suggested that Chen Guorui was the mastermind who burned Wanghai Tower, and Li Hongzhang tried his best to keep him.

In addition, Ding Richang, who assisted in handling the teaching case, secretly replaced the real leader of the anti-foreign religion with the death row inmates in the prison. It is said that this was also instructed by Li Hongzhang.Li Hongzhang also raised various donations and took out his own savings with Zeng Guofan. They pooled a total of 20,000 taels of silver to give to Zhang Guangzao and Liu Jie, which was regarded as a little financial compensation for them. Li Hongzhang later wrote to Zeng Guofan saying that when interacting with foreigners, you might as well use a little ruffian accent, and don't easily use death to escape responsibility.Speaking of ruffian accent, there is another story.Before Li Hongzhang took over the teaching case, Zeng Guofan asked him that after he went to Tianjin, he would often deal with foreigners. What method are you going to use to communicate with foreigners?Li Hongzhang replied that when interacting with foreigners, I might as well use a ruffian accent (in Anhui dialect, it means playing a little green-skinned hooligan).Zeng Guofan said consolingly, "I think foreigners are human beings, and you should believe in the word honesty and treat people with sincerity when interacting with foreigners."Li Hongzhang summed up his experience of interacting with foreigners for many years, and it seems that he did not listen to the teacher's words.

On March 12, 1872, Zeng Guofan died of illness.Before he died, he was filled with remorse and self-blame for his handling of the Tianjin teaching case. Zeng Guofan has been paying attention to the principles of handling things all his life, paying attention to the importance of morality and practice, but he did not expect that he would not be safe at the end of the day, and the pain in his heart can be imagined.Li Hongzhang was very sad when he heard the news, and tears filled his eyes. He wrote the elegiac couplet: I have been a teacher for nearly 30 years, and my salary has been exhausted, and I have built a house and grown up as a door;

The prestige is astounding ninety thousand miles, the interior is safe and the exterior is crowded, and it is rare to find a talent in the world.